"Pneuma" by Chad BalsterVon Fire Gallery Louisville Kentucky

spiral grouping of rondelles

Pneumawas the title of my solo-show at Von Fire for many reasons. An essential element in glassblowing is the starter bubble. Generally, we trap air from our bodies in the hot pipe covered with molten glass. The Inspiration of the piece happens when there is moisture and heat. The Glass is fresh enough that it yields to this Pneuma-tic pressure. From that point on we add color, more glass, more color, some more glass and plenty of hot fresh air. So you can see that the "inspiration" and filling of the glass is our "pneuma", a vital breath captured in glass. Taking the word inspiration, i wanted to show my diverse influences and techniques. The "Fibonacci Spiral" wall grouping in the far left is a group of rondelles. I studied painting in college and think that bringing colourful glass to the wall is a connection with those studies. The golden spiral is based on fibonacci's numbers and happens quite often in nature, i find it in my glass even. I wanted to order the Rondelles in a pleasing gracefull perfect shape. Normally my plates are an abstract grouping of color on the wall, so this is an interesting departure from the previous work. The net hanging from the ceiling is a piece i titled, "Indra's net". This is a model for the zero point field within our universe, the background net that connects us all. Drawing from the tradition of Indra: The net is stretched from four posts in Indra's mythological palace. From that mythological net-work all of creation decends, like dew collecting on a spider web. The individual glass ornaments hanging from the net are representations of us and our perception of the world around us. In situ, the ornaments are 200+ perfect repeated diamond-mold ornaments and hung from a modified soccer net. For colors, i used iris gold, iris yellow, iris violet to give the whole composition a metallic lustre. Even the spiral motif from the wall grouping is repeated in the overall shape of the hanging glass pieces. Jutting from the end of the trail of ornaments is a chandelier. It is to represent the body and within that, the chakras. I had the colors of each part correspond to each of the chakras, the highest, violet spun out plate 21" in diameter, down to indigo, then again down to sky blue, then to verdant green ball, which then becomes a yellow, then orange, finally to a ruddy red 2" bulb at the bottom.